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Wednesday, June 01, 2005

"Hockey Dad" Takes MVP Quest to Internet

You'd think that the parents who put their child through athletics would be the best supportive fans that a child or young man needs, but some parents take sports way too seriously and ruin all the fun out of organized sports.

Mr. Michel Croteau, 45, of New Brunswick, Canada believes that his son deserved to be an MVP.... three years ago. When his son, Steven, now 19, was denied the MVP he went to the legal system to try and change the result. He's sued the Hockey Canada board and also appealed to the Federal Courts and also lost in a Human Rights Courts.

According to the Globe and Mail, the paragraph at about half way down describes the mission statement

After teaching himself how to use computers and the law, he has set up a website encouraging other hockey moms and dads to join his crusade. The idea is to get federal institutions to play a greater role in resolving disputes between hockey parents and hockey leagues.

What could they possibly gain to have a more litigious society? I'm sure this dad would have protested if his son's team didn't win a game or with some other outcome he didn't like.

Here's the situation in a nutshell,

In 2002, 16-year-old Steven Croteau scored 45 goals and 42 assists in 27 games to lead his AAA league. Mr. Croteau said that entire arenas used to chant his son's name in admiration of the pintsized 5-foot-5 marvel. "He was amazing. Everybody loved the boy, because of his intelligence of the game."

So when Steven won the best scorer award, but was passed over for MVP, it was a slap in the face to his father. "It's like they've kicked all the values of hard work and sacrifice that the little boy did," Mr. Croteau said. "It made no sense."

Of course now, instead of just collecting their losses and trying another sport or maybe just working on improving for perhaps a tryout at the junior level, Mr Croteau has now stunted his son's hockey growth by provoking Hockey Canada to ban Steven from playing during the duration of the lawsuit proceedings.

IT'S JUST A GAME!!

"Some people may think I'm a crazy nonsensical parent and I'm overzealous, but I feel okay with what I'm doing," he said.